Deck 7: Confederation and Constitution, 1783-1789

Question 1

Roger Sherman's compromise plan on representation in Congress finally was accepted after Benjamin Franklin added the stipulation that

A) the Senate would propose all tax plans.
B) all funding measures would originate in the lower house.
C) the House would consist of one representative for every 20,000 people living in a state.
D) the Senate would consist of two people from each state.
E) the legislature would have two houses.

Answer 1

all funding measures would originate in the lower house.

Question 2

The "three-fifths clause" dealt with

A) how revenue would be distributed to the small states.
B) the counting of slaves for representation in the slave states.
C) how many representatives had to vote for the Constitution before it could be presented to the people.
D) how much in taxes small states would pay.
E) the number of states that had to be represented for the meetings to proceed each day.

Answer 2

the counting of slaves for representation in the slave states.

Question 3

Which of these was not a power given to Congress?

A) To collect taxes and raise revenue
B) To permit states to join and secede from the union
C) To declare war
D) To regulate all commerce
E) To maintain an army

Answer 3

To permit states to join and secede from the union

Question 4

The Land Ordinance of 1785 was most favorable to

A) small farmers.
B) bankers.
C) ranchers.
D) Virginians.
E) wealthy speculators.

Question 5

Which of these was not a power of the Continental Congress under the Articles?

A) To declare war and make peace
B) To make international treaties
C) To establish a currency
D) To select a president
E) To create and maintain a postal service

Question 6

The most pressing challenge of the new nation under the Articles of Confederation concerned

A) raising taxes.
B) printing currency.
C) settling land in the West.
D) dealing with foreign powers.
E) managing the adverse economic and political consequences of the inflationary Revolutionary War debt.

Question 7

The feature of the Articles of Confederation that made it virtually impossible to make any changes to them was

A) the necessity of having all states agree on any proposed legislation.
B) the lack of power to tax.
C) the inability to keep a standing army.
D) the lack of a national bank.
E) their focus on states' rights.

Question 8

All of the following turned the debt of the young nation into a pressing political challenge,except

A) Wall Street used the debt it owned as leverage against the young government and threatened to derail it.
B) Those who held the debt wanted to be repaid.
C) Farmers grew angry because inflation had priced them out of the life they had lived before the war.
D) The rank and file of the army became enraged when the government could not pay all the back pay it owed its soldiers.
E) The new national government still lacked the ability to raise revenue to pay off its debts.

Question 9

The Virginia Plan included all of the following provisions except

A) revising the Articles of Confederation.
B) creating a Congress with two houses.
C) establishing a federal judiciary.
D) establishing a president, elected by Congress.
E) creating a central government in which Congress had veto power over the states.

Question 10

The most significant outcome of Shays's Rebellion was that

A) it showed that the federal government did not have the ability to put down a major rebellion.
B) its supporters lost all respect for the federal government.
C) it demonstrated that the federal government was incapable of settling the debt situation under the Articles of Confederation.
D) the government of Massachusetts needed to have its power reined in.
E) east coast merchants would have to be monitored carefully to ensure they didn't take over the government.

Question 11

All of the following problems posed an immediate challenge to the young nation,except

A) It had amassed a huge debt from fighting for independence.
B) It suddenly had vast lands to control in the west.
C) Loyalists continued to attack the nation's central institutions with guerilla warfare.
D) It had to recreate a system of trade after England's protections had been withdrawn.
E) The revolutionary ideology of republicanism warned against a strong central authority that could address its issues forcefully.

Question 12

All of the following is true about the members of the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention,except

A) They were relatively young.
B) They wanted to strengthen the national government.
C) They were ardent advocates of democracy.
D) They were mostly lawyers.
E) They were wealthy.

Question 13

The effort to establish the first United States national bank in 1781 failed because

A) states did not see the importance of a national bank.
B) Congress did not know how to raise the capital for the bank.
C) Massachusetts farmers rose in rebellion against the bank and stormed its first branch in Boston.
D) the state of New York objected the power such a national financial institution would exercise on state banks.
E) Rhode Island used its unilateral power under the Articles of Confederation to block it because it disliked the imposition of a 5 percent import tax with which the bank was to be funded.

Question 14

The main way in which individual states competed with each other under the Articles of Confederation was through

A) undercutting prices of goods also produced in other states.
B) the implementation of higher tariffs on goods entering their respective states.
C) non-importation of goods from neighboring states.
D) jostling for the small amounts of money available for loans by the federal government.
E) lowering their respective tariffs on goods from other countries.

Question 15

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 is significant for all of the following reasons except

A) It stipulated that a territory could elect a legislature when its male population reached 5,000.
B) It contained a bill of rights.
C) It left to each new state the decision of whether to allow slavery.
D) It created boundaries for the territories.
E) It allowed territories to enter the Union as states once their total population reached 60,000.

Question 16

One political compromise at the Constitutional Convention stated that in 1808

A) a census would begin.
B) the issue of slavery would be addressed directly.
C) the state of Virginia would not present a presidential candidate.
D) the slave trade would end.
E) new states could begin to join the Union.

Question 17

Which of these is not a part of the Bill of Rights?

A) Freedom of the press against government intrusion
B) Protection against general (unwarranted) searches
C) The right of males to vote if they paid taxes
D) The right of criminal defendants to enjoy a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury of one's peers
E) Freedom of religion

Question 18

The farmers who came out in protest in Massachusetts in 1786 demanded

A) the payment of government subsidies in specie rather than promissory notes.
B) equal access to land.
C) a moratorium on taxes and lawsuits against debtors.
D) that government live within its means and stop the spending spree.
E) new elections after allegations of voter fraud had emerged.

Question 19

It could most accurately be stated of the Articles of Confederation that

A) they were not ratified until 1783.
B) John Dickinson's treatise was used to argue against ratification.
C) the central government under the Articles had very little power.
D) only eleven of the states ever ratified the Articles.
E) one of the few powers given by the Articles was the right of taxation.

Question 20

Which of the following best describes John Adams' concept of "mixed government"?

A) Both men and women would play a role in the nation's politics.
B) African Americans deserved their place in the political arena next to white Americans.
C) The powers of government were separated into the legislative, executive, and judiciary branch.
D) A bicameral legislature of senators and representatives would temper the volatility of simple majority rule.
E) Northern and Southern states would mix evenly in the Senate and thereby avoid an escalation of the debate over slavery.

Question 21

Compare and contrast the Virginia and New Jersey Plans that were presented at the Constitutional Convention.Explain the compromise that brought the two sides together.

Question 22

To gain ratification of the Constitution,the Federalists promised that adding a Bill of Rights to the Constitution would be the first order of business once the new Congress met.

Question 23

Neither the Articles of Confederation nor any state constitution directly addressed powers expressly reserved to the states.

Question 24

The Electoral College was put in place

A) to oversee the appointments of presidential candidates and determine who should run for office.
B) to oversee the qualifications of candidates for Congress and the number of elected officials for each state.
C) to appoint federal judges.
D) because the Constitutional Convention didn't trust democracy or the masses to elect the most qualified person as president.
E) to nominate presidential candidates.

Question 25

What were the major problems the country faced under the Articles of Confederation? Why was it impossible to "fix" these problems?

Question 26

The president would have the power to do all of the following except

A) declare war.
B) appoint diplomats.
C) veto acts of Congress he believed to be unconstitutional.
D) execute laws passed by Congress.
E) oversee the army and navy as commander in chief.

Question 27

How does the idea of "separation of powers" apply to the three branches of the U.S.government?

Question 28

All of the following is true about the Bill of Rights,except

A) Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York had all agreed to ratify the Constitution on the condition that Congress draft amendments to protect individual freedom from encroachment by the federal government.
B) Many of the protections that Congress contemplated were borrowed from the various state constitutions.
C) Of the twelve proposed amendments, ten passed.
D) The first amendment to pass was stipulated compensation for congressmen.
E) Congress began the task of crafting the Bill of Rights even before the Constitution was fully ratified.

Question 29

The New Jersey plan called for

A) increasing the power of states with large populations.
B) a limit to the physical size of new states.
C) a Bill of Rights.
D) a revision of the Articles of Confederation, giving each state equal representation.
E) the ending of the slave trade in twenty years.

Question 30

All of the following are true statements about the Anti-Federalists except

A) They included many prominent patriots such as John Hancock and Samuel Adams.
B) They preferred a weaker confederation of states.
C) They wanted to see a strong national government.
D) They sought to protect the "spirit of '76" and its democracy.
E) They wanted to safeguard individual liberties.

Question 31

Explain how the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 organized the division of lands in the new territories.

Question 32

Explain the most significant parts of the Bill of Rights,addressing each amendment separately.

Question 33

For the Constitution to take effect,nine of the thirteen states had to ratify it.

Question 34

The only large state to ratify the Constitution by the end of 1788 was Virginia.

Question 35

The Federalist Papers were

A) a tell-all book about the conspiratorial nature of the Philadelphia Convention which almost destroyed the necessary support for the constitution.
B) a new type of national currency that the constitution had authorized.
C) a new passport that allowed Americans to travel across state lines throughout the nation.
D) an early archive of the writings and correspondence of the founding fathers.
E) a series of essays written by three prominent advocates of the new constitution that sought to gain support for its ratification in New York State.

Question 36

The earliest states to ratify the Constitution were

A) larger states such as New York.
B) smaller states such as Delaware and New Jersey.
C) newer states such as Ohio.
D) states that relied on foreign trade and the right to control tariffs.
E) All of these choices.

Question 37

The final state to ratify the Constitution was

A) New York.
B) New Jersey.
C) New Hampshire.
D) Rhode Island.
E) Virginia.

Question 38

Among other things,states were specifically forbidden to

A) establish separate school systems.
B) develop their own currency.
C) establish treaties among themselves.
D) maintain state militias.
E) nullify federal laws.

Question 39

The Bill of Rights addressed all of the following grievances Americans had suffered as colonists,except

A) abridgements of free speech.
B) an established church.
C) unreasonable searches by the federal government.
D) the denial of a trial by one's peers.
E) authoritarian and undemocratic local governments.

Question 40

The Land Ordinance of 1785 established territorial governments in the Great Lakes region and set a pattern for future western development.

Question 41

At the Constitutional Convention,the issue of the slave trade raised such heated feelings that the delegates refused to even talk of a time in the future for ending that practice.

Question 42

The Articles had no power to force states to cede their extra land to the federal government,so it was not until 1802 that all of the western lands had been ceded back to the government.

Question 43

The Anti-Federalists preferred a weaker confederation of states and more direct democracy than provided for in the Constitution.

Question 44

At one point,the retired George Washington had to address his army personally to defuse a situation that could have led to mutiny because under the Articles,there was no money to pay their salaries.

Question 45

The Articles of Confederation did attempt to set forth a national policy on internal trade and commerce,but the plan was too vague to be of much use.